Prevent Spotify from starting when your computer boots by disabling automatic startup.
Option 1
- Open “Spotify“.
- Select “Edit‘ > “Preferences” in Microsoft Windows or “Spotify” > “Preferences” in MacOS.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom and select the “Show Advanced Settings” button.
- Scroll to the “Startup and Window Behaviour” section.
- For the “Open Spotify automatically after you log into the computer” setting, use the drop-down menu to select “No“.
The setting is automatically saved once it’s selected. Now Spotify should no longer automatically launch whenever you start your computer. I should mention that I discovered a service called “SpotifyWebHelper” that allows you to start Spotify from a web page. You can disable “SpotifyWebHelper” from starting by turning the “Allow Spotify to be started from the Web” setting to “Off“.
Option 2 (Windows Only)
- Right-click a blank area of the taskbar, then choose “Task Manager“.
- Select the “Startup” tab.
- Right-click “Spotify“, then select “Disable“.
Max says
If you’re running Windows 10 and can’t get Spotify to stop opening when Windows starts – even with the startup option set to “No” in the Advanced section of Spotify’s preferences – you may have the Windows app store version of the program installed, even if you don’t think you have. So try this:
– Search for Spotify in the Windows search bar
– When it comes up in the list, right click it and select “App Settings”
– A panel of Windows settings for the app will appear, not Spotify’s own settings
– Find the “Runs at log-in” option. It will likely be greyed out. Click “Configure startup tasks” right underneath it
– Find Spotify in the list which appears and uncheck it
This worked for me. Your experience may differ. I had even used CCleaner and other methods to change startup entries without success until I tried the above procedure.
I believe this is a problem caused by Windows being confused because it is possible to have downloaded and installed Spotify from the Spotify website as a regular program, and it is also possible to have downloaded and installed Spotify from the Windows app store as an “app”.
If you’ve d’loaded it as a Windows app, you need to configure the Windows settings as described above (in addition to the regular “Edit > Preferences > [Show Advanced Settings] > Startup and Window Behavior >Open Spotify automatically after you log into the computer > No” fix within Spotify).
Jason says
Thanks for this information. It was extremely difficult to find a way to disable auto start with Spotify until I googled this! It’s not a very user friendly App. If it gives me anymore troubles I will just uninstall and forget about Spotify.
nazren says
can you do a tutorial of disabling auto startup spotify that been downloaded through windows store? thanks
Martin says
Hello to everybody,
for me this worked for windows 10:
Run “regedit” as administrator and delete the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg\Spotify
Then restart the PC.
Good day to Martin
Sara says
Thank you Dany Glezer!! Your instructions worked for me.
Even after I had the preference set to “no,” it would still load on startup but trashing the login file worked.
Ariel says
Still opening on startup. This is insulting.
Yancarlo says
Thanks, this recently started popping up on login for windows 10 and I can’t find a way to uninstall it, and you can’t access any settings related to having it automatically load without logging in. The task manager startup entry is something I had completely forgotten about.
Maria Gilbert says
Thank you
b; says
thanks! that worked for me. appreciate you sharing this tip…
Dany Glezer says
Right click on Spotify.app -> Show Package content.
Open Contents/Library/LoginItems and delete StartUpHelper.app
Restart your Mac and enjoy.
K G says
Thanks a lot! I hate apps that hijack your system like this. I’ve had it set to never open on startup and not to save it in the dock on mac. Yet it still opens on startup. I knew they had to have a setting in the app, your instructions led me straight there! Awesome!
Andrew says
This little bastard won’t stop showing up, I have it set to “No” and the damn thing doesn’t even show up under the startup tab stupid bastard
ann must says
it has been on “No” from the start on my mac, and the damn thing pops up all the time nevertheless! should i really uninstall it?
David Nielsen says
Thank you! I figured it’d be an on/off switch in Mac System Preferences, and deleted it there. But Spotify still came up on reboots…, which I hate because it uses a ton of space/energy on my iMac.
Sydney Rome says
It didn’t work for me I’m afraid. Whenever I reboot my Macbook the bloody app rears its ugly green head again.